Martin County BOCC votes to support the Land Buy!

Martin County BOCC votes to support the Land Buy!

The Martin County Commission voted yesterday to support State Senate President Joe Negron’s $2.4 billion plan to curtail discharges from Lake Okeechobee into the St Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers.

Thank you!

Commissioners Ed Fielding, Sarah Heard, Ed Ciampi, and Harold Jenkins voted to support the plan, which calls for the government to buy up to 60,000 acres south of the lake and build a 120 billion gallon reservoir.

The Lone vote

Commission Chairman Doug Smith was the lone vote against, saying that Negron’s plan doesn’t fit the current strategy put in place by the South Florida Water Management District, the Army Corps of Engineers, and local governments. Funny. South Florida Water Management works for Big sugar and by local governments I’m assuming he means the Glades which could use a boost to their economy and jobs for the people. Not the local politicians who use fear to keep their community in place. Things like hysterically calling us rich people that live by the water. (#altfacts)

Chairman Smith said when he ran said in his campaign against Jacqui Thurlow Lippish that he was concerned about our environment. Before that he had done a piece with Brian Lapointe on NPR saying the issue was our septic tanks. You will remember that he ran in closed race after Ron Rose assisted Chase Lurgio into running and it closed the election. He won by about 500 votes. Many people said they voted for him because he said he would fix our river. It’s time hold people to to the fire when they make election promises and do not follow through.

He said we need to “finish projects.” For those of you that are new that’s code for “I’m with big sugar.”

We are very appreciative of the other commissioners that voted for this plan.

As you can see by this photo that I snitched from my friend Jennie Pawlowsky that the river is looking good! It’s looking so good she feels comfortable brings her dogs in it and paddle board.

As far South Florida Water Management goes they are a political organization at this point mismanaging our water. Palm Beach County is under water restrictions. Apparently they have short memory loss after sending billions of gallons of fresh water out to tide. People in Palm Beach County need to wake up and stop being so sugar sweet. Neighbor’s don’t let neighbors get gross disgusting discharges from Lake Okeechobee.

Study to identify and research bacteria

In other news the next phase of Port St Lucie’s study to identify and research bacteria in the St Lucie River is set to begin later this week. The Dry Season phase of the microbial tracking study will begin on Thursday. The study began in June of last year after the Department of Health issued health advisories about the levels of microbial bacteria in the North Fork of the St Lucie River.

Water samples from the wet season of June, July, and August were taken. The dry season samples will be taken in February, March, and April. The goal of the study is to identify areas of concern, and then develop a plan to improve water quality and preserve the St Lucie River.

The data is being analyzed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Results of the study will be available later this summer. Last year we were getting discharges all winter so there was no way to do this study.

I encourage everyone to document photos of a recovering River and IRL. Unfortunately we have lost 60,000 acres of seagrass.

I encourage you all to pay attention! Call out Doug Smith who has overplayed his win to represent us so we can have a clean river and lagoon. I’m happy about the work at the Health Department because it will give us true info. #science not #altfacts

Sending the water south will not only helps us! It literally will stop throwing away fresh water which we need but will help the Everglades.

In the current fight over restoration, this isolated region often gets overlooked. While Lake Okeechobee pollution to the north grabs headlines and gets the attention of Florida lawmakers, it’s actually here where damage may be most profound.

For the last 16 years, nearly 80 scientists and their students from 29 organizations — including all the state’s major universities, the National Park Service and the South Florida Water Management District — have embarked on one of the longest and largest studies ever conducted on South Florida’s coastal Everglades. They now fear the system may be at what lead investigator Evelyn Gaiser calls a “tipping point,” where change is happening faster than scientists expected and spinning into a self-perpetuating cycle of decline”

The last time I went to SFWMD they were not that concerned about this. In fact they made it sound like there was no reason to even do this. LOL dudes! You work for us! Do your job!

The bill received approval in the State Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee. A similar bill could face trouble in the House, where Speaker Richard Corcoran has expressed doubt the reservoir would work. I hope we can convince Speaker Corcoran about the #science.

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